The arrival of 2000 reminds us that life is short. Deadening routines
often squander our time, while evasions take unnecessary tolls in human
suffering. But much better possibilities remain.
Every day, a nationwide media barrage encourages us to be cynical and
passive. Endless dramas of politics and grand commerce -- amorality plays
-- are performed with great zeal. We're supposed to cheer. But many of us
find the glorified spectacles to be dispiriting rather than uplifting.
The words of America's leading politicians reverberate through a national
echo chamber. They tout global supremacy and higher market share as
ultimate virtues. Dissenting voices are mostly circumspect. Pundits debate
how -- but not whether -- the U.S. government should use such measures as
diplomatic arm-twisting, financial blackmail and military might to impose
its will on the world.
Meanwhile, news outlets are echoing discussions on Capitol Hill about how
to fine-tune the economic status quo -- widely portrayed as wonderful at
the end of 1999. But a Boston-based organization, United for a Fair Economy
(www.stw.org), offers a reality check, reporting information that can't be
found in the media spotlights:
"The record-breaking economic boom of the 1990s has left Americans more
polarized and debt-ridden," researchers found. A rising tide "has lifted
the yachts to tremendous heights, but many Americans are still bailing out
their boats after decades of sinking real wages."
Ten years ago, there were 66 billionaires and 31.5 million people
living below the poverty line in this country. Today, "the United States
has 268 billionaires and 34.5 million people living below the official
poverty line -- about $13,000 for a three-person family."
Economic inequality is rampant in America. "The top 1 percent of
households has more wealth than the entire bottom 95 percent combined." The
situation is much worse than it was a quarter-century ago: "Since 1977, the
top 1 percent has doubled its share of the nation's wealth to 40 percent."
Currently, the people on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans "have
about as much wealth as the 50 million households in the bottom half of the
population."
While news stories hail the glorious achievements of the stock market,
a lot of people in the United States "are just plain broke. They have
nothing to tide them over in case of a health crisis or unemployment, much
less save for college or retirement. Nearly one out of five households has
zero or negative net worth (greater debts than assets), compared with one
in 10 in 1962."
The questions that journalists pose to elected officials and candidates
rarely confront such economic realities. Instead, the repeated queries have
a pre-fab quality -- matching the slightly zombie-like verbiage of most
politicians, whose language was aptly described several decades ago by
George Orwell: "When one watches some tired hack on the platform,
mechanically repeating the familiar phrases...one often has a curious
feeling that one is not watching a live human being but some kind of dummy."
Faced with a nonstop swirl of media coverage, it's tempting to succumb to
chronic cynicism. But journalists -- and the rest of us -- are better off
if we can develop an attitude of idealistic skepticism. In 2000 and beyond,
giving voice to candor will be a minimum prerequisite to create conditions
for realistic hope.
"I have come to believe over and over again," the poet Audre Lorde said,
"that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared,
even at the risk of having it bruised and misunderstood.... For it is not
difference which immobilizes us most but silence."
While 14 million people in the United States are extremely poor -- living
at less than 50 percent of the poverty level -- for the most part their
plights are dismissed by mainstream journalists as scarcely more
consequential than lint in the pockets of the powerful. The same goes for
the approximately 1,000 children around the world who die every hour from
diseases that are easily preventable. According to UNICEF, the cost of
saving their lives would amount to about 10 percent of the Pentagon budget.
To criticize this institutional madness can seem bold, even brave. How sad.
"One day posterity will remember," wrote Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko,
"This strange era, these strange times, when / Ordinary common honesty was
called courage."
Hopefully, we'll find more strength for such honesty in the 21st century.
Norman Solomon's latest book The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media: Decoding Spin and Lies in Mainstream News has
just won the 1999 George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to
Honesty and Clarity in Public Language, presented by the National Council
of Teachers of English.
